Derrion Albert's death 'a call to action'
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
CHICAGO — There is hope here that the legacy of Derrion Albert, whose Sept. 24 slaying was captured on video and seen around the world, will be a renewed effort to stop teen violence.
"Something's going to change. ... There's something about this beating that has really gotten to everybody," says Gary Slutkin of CeaseFire Chicago, an anti-violence group. More than 150 people 25 and younger have been slain here this year.
"As horrific as that video was," Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis says, "maybe it was a call to action."
Others doubt the causes of teen violence — gangs, drugs, guns and poverty — can be changed by one death.
Pamela Montgomery-Bosley's son Terrell Bosley, 18, was shot and killed here in 2006 on his way to choir practice. The case is unsolved. She says ending the bloodshed is possible only if "we can make parents accountable for their kids" and persuade people who witness crimes to speak up.
"Everybody's got to talk, but they're afraid," she says. "Parents are blaming everybody but themselves. ... Our children are not free. They're in slavery in their own neighborhoods."
Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder were in Chicago on Wednesday to discuss the issue with local officials, students and victims' families.
At a news conference, Holder promised a "sustained national effort" to address youth violence. "We simply cannot stand for an epidemic of violence that robs our youth of their childhood and perpetuates a cycle in which today's victims become tomorrow's criminals," he said.
Duncan said Christian Fenger Academy High School, where Albert was an honor student, will get $500,000 in federal funds for counselors and other programs.
Need more than just talk
Officials here and elsewhere say it will take more than talk to solve the problems that led to the slayings of 1,494 people younger than 18 nationwide in 2008:
• "The toxic cocktail of drugs, gangs and guns" must be addressed, says U.S. Attorney Joe Russoniello, who participated last month in a teen violence summit in Salinas, Calif., where 10 of 22 homicide victims this year were 19 or younger.
Russoniello says parents, schools, law enforcement and community groups must work together to instill values in children before their teen years and create peer pressure that makes gang membership unpopular. "If a person ... really doesn't view his life as worth anything, how can we expect him to care about anyone else's?" he says.
• In Sarasota, Fla., every suspect arrested in recent killings was 19 or younger, says police Capt. Bill Spitler. He says money is needed for additional cops and violence-prevention programs in schools. "Nobody seems to care," he says. "It's crazy. This is a national problem."
• Chicago Public Schools will spend $60 million in federal stimulus grants over two years to give the most vulnerable high school students mentors, part-time jobs to keep them off the streets and security guards to help them get to and from school safely.
Weis says he needs money for overtime so police can patrol areas near schools after classes. Albert was killed as he was walking home from school.
It will be harder, Weis says, to break the "code of silence." Tips did not lead to the arrests of four teens who have been charged with killing Albert, he says. "All you hear is the roar of silence."
Urban violence declines
Philip Harris, a criminal justice professor at Temple University, says that despite high-profile cases such as Albert's death, violence is dropping in many cities.
He worries, though, that the recession might change that trend. "We're watching the impact of the economy as people are losing jobs and the stress of survival starts to hit poorer communities," he says.
The U.S. murder and manslaughter rate fell from 8.7 deaths for every 100,000 Americans in 1989 to 5.4 in 2008, the FBI says. Young adults from 18 to 24 experience the highest homicide rates, but the proportion of serious violent crimes by juveniles has generally declined since 1993, the Justice Department says.
In Chicago, there were 307 killings through August, the police department says. Nine victims were 9 or younger, 20 were 10-16 and 123 were 17-25.
Slutkin says his hope that Albert's death will be a catalyst for change is tempered by conditions in Chicago's poor neighborhoods.
"You frequently cannot pull yourself out of quicksand," he says.
In Sarasota, Spitler is pessimistic. "It's not just gangs. It's not just drugs," he says. "We have people killing people for no reason whatsoever."
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